


When In Amsterdam

by nwhepcat



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5.04 "The End", Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:42:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nwhepcat/pseuds/nwhepcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few moments between future!Cas and past!Dean before the raid on Lucifer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When In Amsterdam

Dean watches himself gather some equipment and stride toward the door. "How can I help?"

"Stay put," Other-him says with a significant look, and shoves through the door.

"My god, I can be an obnoxious ass," he mutters to himself. _This_ himself. He wishes he had something physical to do. Too much time to think about what the other him said about Sam ... well, it's not going to be good.

Dean studies the map Dean -- the other Dean -- had pulled out. There are penciled-in areas showing the hot zone, others with cross-hatching to mark the areas that have been totally destroyed. It's hard to take it all in. He reaches for the accordion file where other-Dean had gotten it and pulls out a few others, spreading them out over the table to see what damage has been done to the world he knew.

_Great way to distract yourself, Dean._ It's like taking a hot knife to a wound to keep from thinking about the cancer chewing through you.

He hears the thump of boots on the wooden steps outside, immediately realizing it's not him -- not that him -- and thinking how weird it is to know the sound of his own gait.

Instead it's Castiel who pushes open the door.

"Just when I'd gotten used to you just turning up and startling the shit out of me," Dean says.

He can't quite read the flicker of expression on Cas's face before it's gone. "When in Rome," he says.

"More like 'When in Amsterdam,'" Dean counters, and Cas laughs, which is even weirder than the notion of Cas traveling by foot.

Cas eases himself back into the chair he'd occupied before, propping his feet up on the table again.

Dean can't get over the strangeness of all these physical cues being so _off_. He settles into his own chair. "Thought you'd be off with your harem. You know, probable last night on earth and all."

Cas smirks. "I've had so many probable last nights on earth, a little break in the routine won't hurt." He laughs again. "Remember our first last night on earth? Before I summoned Raphael?"

"Wasn't that long ago, dude. Man, we laughed so hard. Well, _I_ laughed so hard."

"It was pretty funny," Cas admits. "Chastity. That name really threw me into a tailspin. A big flashing neon sign reminding me which of God's laws I was getting ready to break. I thought maybe He was watching after all." He rubs at the stubble on his face. "She thought I was hilarious, a fifteen-year-old boy in a thirty-three-year-old body. But she was kind in her way. She wanted to make it nice for me, though she fully expected me to shoot the second she loosened my tie. Which happens far more than you'd think. A good half of her clients never even got to the copulation. Surprising, isn't it? Anyway, despite her amusement, she was determined to be tender, and that's when I spoke with her about her father."

"Looks like you've made up for lost time."

"I strive, as I always have, for perfection in all things."

The wide grin is just unnerving, when the most exuberant expression he'd seen before was a fast flicker of a smile with the barest flash of teeth.

"It must be disconcerting to see your future self," Cas says.

"I'll say. What everyone's always told me is true."

Cas lifts his brows in a question.

"I really am bowlegged. Jesus, I'm like Gabby Hayes."

Cas laughs. "Well. That's one thing that never changed."

Dean gives him a long, hard look. "Am I really this hard? Now-me, I mean."

"More than you know. Or want to."

He swallows. "So. You like this me."

"Something like that." And the smirking, half-stoned look vanishes, leaving a naked longing in its place.

Something twists in Dean's chest. "Should I do it, Cas? Should I say yes?"

"I wish you would," he whispers. "But not to him."


End file.
